


Assemble With Care

by GemmaRose



Series: Altean Lanse AU [4]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Altean Lance (Voltron), Developing Relationship, Episode: s01e02 Some Assembly Required, Established Relationship, Galra Keith (Voltron), Illustrated, M/M, Possessive Behavior, Racist Allura, Relationship Discussions, Team Bonding, yes lance's name is supposed to be spelled like that
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-19
Updated: 2018-09-22
Packaged: 2019-07-14 08:49:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 12,679
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16037036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GemmaRose/pseuds/GemmaRose
Summary: Lanse has trained his whole life for this, he wasbornto be a Paladin of Voltron. He didn't expect his teammates to be so difficult though, or that dating the sole galra on the team would be the exact opposite of helpful. But if they want to be able to defeat Zarkon, if Lanse wants to keep any more planets from falling the way Altea did, they'll have to make it work.Written as part of theKlance Big Bangon tumblr with art byJupiter.





	1. Chapter 1

Lanse jolted awake to the blare of an alarm, heart immediately thundering in his chest. “Everybody up!” Allura shouted in a panic. “Zarkon's attacking! The Castle's about to be destroyed! Go, go, go! We need Voltron now!”

Keith shot to his feet at the end of the second sentence, and Lanse grabbed his wrist to halt him. “The hangars!”

Keith nodded, and Lanse only barely remembered to grab his helmet before leading his suitor out of the room at a run, jamming it on as he ran.

“Hurry! We can't survive much longer!” Allura pleaded, and as they slid into the express elevator for the hangars Lanse reached for Blue. She had to be ready to fly the _tick_ he got down there.

“Oh, no! Allura is dead!”

Lanse’s head snapped up at his dad’s terrible acting, his mouth falling open. A drill. This was a drill, like Uncle Blaytz had complained about Dad making him do with the other original Paladins.

“Coran.” Allura sighed, and Lanse dropped his head into the hand Keith wasn’t holding. Keith made a sound of concern, and when Lanse turned his head to look the Red Paladin had fixed him with the most openly worried expression he’d seen in a while.

“It was a drill.” he said simply, and understanding dawned on Keith’s face.

“So, we head for the bridge instead?” he asked as the doors slid open.

“Yes.” Lanse sighed heavily. “And I need to call my idiot sister.” he brought up comms as Keith hit the button to bring them up to the bridge level, and pinged the bridge.

“Lanse!” Allura answered brightly. She sounded like she was smiling, but definitely not happy. “Where are you?”

“Keith and I are in the express elevator on our way back up from the hangars.” he said sharply. “Where we’d just arrived when you said this was a _prank_.”

“Not a prank, a test.” Dad defended.

“Then congrats on making a test that’s _impossible to pass_.” he snapped, following Keith out of the elevator and down the hall to the bridge. “If you really want to test us,” he shut off his comms as he quickened his pace, storming past Keith through the main doors of the bridge. “Then give us enough time for the elevator to get to the Lions before you say we’ve failed!”

“You must always be ready to do battle with Zarkon.” Allura frowned sternly, but she had nothing on Father.

“Which is why we’ve got a warning system!” he exclaimed, walking past Hunk in his PJs and Pidge in yesterday’s clothes. Shiro, strangely, was already in his armour.

“Coran and I have been up for vargas getting the Castle back in order. You’ve no excuse.”

“You can’t expect us to go without sleep when we’re not immediately in a life or death situation! You two weren’t out there yestertant, fighting Sendak’s cruiser and almost-” a shiver rippled through him, head to toe, and he let himself be pulled back against a strong, warm, gently rumbling chest. Keith, purring low enough to be inaudible.

“Yeah.” Hunk yawned as Lanse relaxed into his suitor’s gentle embrace. “You two got to sleep for, what, ten thousand years? Monday night, I was on Earth. Now, I've flown through space, fought an evil alien space Hitler named Zarkon, eaten goo in some weird Castle. That's a lot to process in, uh... I don't know. What day is today?”

“It's the third quintant of the Spicolian movement. Hump day!” Dad offered brightly.

“Wednesday.” Pidge supplied at Hunk’s blank, bleary expression.

“It’s a lot to process.” the human sighed.

“You must understand the stakes of our mission.” Allura said, far more patiently than Lanse had expected. She summoned a keyboard, and inputting a command as she continued speaking. “Over the last ten thousand deca-phoebs, the castle has picked up distress beacons from the following locations.” the starmap appeared around them, much like it had yestertant during Lion assignment, only this time it began to tint red. First one planet or system at a time, then faster and faster, the spread of the Empire tracked like wildfire on an intergalactic scale. Specks of blue still stood amongst the red, but he could only assume those were planets that were either uninhabited or simply not developed enough to send a distress signal.

“We must assume that Zarkon has conquered almost the entire known universe.” she said, and Lanse’s heart sank. He’d known the Empire was larger now than it had been when Altea was destroyed, but he hadn’t realized just how _much_ larger. Even with Voltron, freeing this many planets, systems, _galaxies_? It was far more ambitious a goal than anything Father’s generation had attempted.

“This is the Helios System,” Allura spun the starmap to display a system with one planet highlighted, and name tags attached to each of them in a script he’d never seen before. The human paladins looked to Shiro, who kept his eyes on the map. “As you can see, Zarkon’s forces have nearly reached your system. An attack on your planet is inevitable.”

“There’s no nearly about it.” Lanse crossed his arms, straightening up slightly from Keith’s hold. “Shiro and I were captured at the edge of that system.”

“Then why didn’t they attack?” Pidge frowned.

“It was probably a scout ship.” Keith supplied, and Allura glared at him for a tick. Lanse glared right back. “The Empire is methodical, they catalogue the resources of systems a ways ahead of the main fleet, and categorize them for the most efficient order of conquest.”

“And I suppose you know this firsthand?” Allura asked sharply.

“Well I did have to pass basic training.”

“Sorry, can we get back to the fact that our homeworld is about to get _conquered by space Nazis_?” Hunk interjected, gesturing at himself and the other two human Paladins.

“There’s still hope.” Allura dismissed the starmap with a flick of her fingers, the lights winking out in clumps as the projector powered down. “Our mission is to free all those planets, forcing Zarkon’s fleet to confront us instead of continuing their expansion outward. Coran and I are getting the castle ready to leave Arus. During that time, you have to learn to form Voltron, so we can begin fighting Zarkon.”

“The Princess is right.” Shiro said. “Let’s get to our Lions and start training.”

“Wait.” Pidge turned to Shiro, looking up at him with an expression close to pleading. “But I want to talk to the prisoners we rescued from the galran ship.”

“Ah, negative, Number Five.” Dad strode up from behind Allura and bent at the waist, mock measuring Pidge with his arms. “I have you ranked by height, okay?”

Lanse smothered a giggle. Trust Dad to know how to lighten the mood.

“The prisoners need to remain in the cryo-pods until tomorrow.”

“That’s right.” Allura agreed, though Lanse was pretty sure she hadn’t known that until a tick ago. “Now, get to your Lions.”

“So, like, should we go to our rooms first to get our armour or...” Hunk trailed off, and Lanse clapped him on the shoulder.

“Don’t worry about it. There’s a spare suit stored in the pre-zipline chamber just for situations like this.”

“Is that so?” Pidge muttered, scowling at Allura. Lanse suppressed a groan. Had she not asked Dad for _any_ help with this ‘test’? Ugh, whatever, he could talk to her about it later.

“I’m guessing those doors are the chambers?” Keith gestured at his own door, then Lanse’s.

“Yep.” Dad beamed. “That one’s yours, Leo’s, Number One’s, Number Five’s, and Number Two’s.” he indicated each one, going clockwise from Keith’s and ending on Shiro’s in the middle of the room.

“Leo?” Keith raised an eyebrow, and Lanse sighed.

“Childhood nickname.” he said by way of explanation. Keith hummed softly, and reached to take Lanse’s hand in one of his.

“See you outside.” he smiled, small and shy, and Lanse gave Keith’s hand a gentle squeeze as he smiled back.

Allura cleared her throat pointedly, and Lanse made a rude hand gesture over his shoulder at her as he walked into the ready chamber. They had to have a _serious_ talk later, probably with Dad involved too. For now, though, they had training to do.

He donned his armour quickly, grabbed the hand bar, and shut his eyes as the floor dropped out from under him. Blue was ready and waiting when he got to her, pilot seat slid back into the mouth of the speeder’s room for him, and the controls leapt into his hands as soon as he was in range. Black was already waiting outside when they left the hangar, unsurprising since Shiro had already been fully armoured, and it wasn’t half a dobosh before Red joined them.

“Should someone go in after them?” Keith asked when neither Yellow nor Green had shown up after almost three doboshes.

“Nope, no, we’re here!” Pidge’s voice came over the comms, and Lanse looked up to see the Green Lion just behind Yellow.

“They couldn’t make those ready chambers a little bigger?” Hunk complained as Yellow landed amongst them.

“Or the drop to the bikes shorter?” Pidge added, setting down next to him.

“You’ll get the hang of landing on the bike pretty quick, don’t worry.” he assured Pidge with a chuckle. “The armour too.”

“Oh, good.” Hunk let out a nervous little laugh.

“Alright, guys.” Shiro’s voice came over the comms, and Lanse sat up straighter. “Let’s just fly in tight formation until we’re totally in synch.”

“Remember.” Allura’s face popped up on one of his side screens, smiling too brightly to be genuine. “You must feel the bond with your Lions and your fellow pilots, until five become one unit and you form Voltron!”

“Yeah!” Lanse grinned, taking off with the others and opening himself up to Blue as they fell into formation. Any tick now, the others would do the same and they’d have a second formation on their record. Any tick now...

“What’s taking you guys so long?” Lanse huffed after five doboshes, Blue slipping into her usual place in the back of his mind as irritation took the fore.

“Clearly, this isn’t working.” Shiro said before anyone could respond. “Let’s set down for a little bit.”

Lanse huffed, but followed his teammates in angling towards the ground, letting Blue drift closer to Red as they descended. “Maybe we should try building Voltron from the ground up.” Keith suggested, and Lanse whacked Red with Blue’s tail. “Hey!”

“What do you think we were just trying to do?” he asked rhetorically, and once again Shiro interrupted before Keith could respond.

“Lanse, let him speak.”

“Thank you, Shiro.” Keith said curtly. “I mean, let’s try literally building Voltron. Like, stacking the Lions on top of each other.”

“Like a cheerleader pyramid?” Pidge asked, sounding confused.

“I’m pretty sure that’s not how it works.” Lanse rolled his eyes.

“Yeah? And how would you know?” Pidge challenged.

“I watched the original Paladins form Voltron thousands of times.” he scoffed. “Trust me, I would’ve noticed them stacking the Lions up like Rygnian topple-sticks.”

“Yeah, but you only saw them after they’d already been doing that for years, right?” Hunk rebutted. “We only got our Lions yesterday, there’s a learning curve.”

“Lanse, if you have a better idea, feel free to share it.” Shiro said, his voice calm and steady. “But if not, Keith’s suggestion is worth a try.”

Lanse opened his mouth, but found he didn’t have any retort for that. “Fine.” he huffed, and swooped down to land Blue neatly on a wide, mostly level patch of dirt. “There, I’m a leg.” he leaned back, and shut his eyes as he opened himself to Blue again, muting his mic for privacy. “Why aren’t they getting this?” he complained, not whining because he was a Paladin now and Paladins didn’t whine.

The soft shush of waves on a beach was his only answer, Blue soothing him like cool water over a burn. “I know, I know.” he hung his head back against the seat, slipping slightly out of himself and into her comforting, cool quintessence web. “But still, this is the _easy_ part.”

Blue rumbled deeper, admonishing him, and he frowned as he slipped back into his body fully. “What do you mean they’re not sensitives? I thought that was part of being a Paladin.”

“Hunk, what are you doing?” Shiro’s voice cut through Blue’s laughter, and Lanse blinked at the radar on Blue’s screen. That was, not right.

“What do you mean?” Hunk asked, sounding entirely too innocent.

“You’re supposed to be the leg, over there.” Shiro said, and Lanse could practically see him gesturing to the spot currently filled by Green. Green! Who had let Pidge land there? Green was the _smallest_ of the Lions, not mistakable for a leg Lion by any stretch of the imagination.

“What? No.” Hunk scoffed. “No, no, no. I’m pretty sure that when we did it last time, I was the head. Right?”

Lanse flicked his mic back on, sitting up in his seat. “You literally yelled ‘I’m a leg’.”

“Yeah, well, I was yelling a lot of things.”

“Shiro’s the head.” Pidge insisted.

“All the time?”

“Let’s just try it my way for now.” Shiro sighed.

“Okay, but next time I call head.”

“That’s not how it works!” Pidge protested, and Lanse shut his eyes again with a groan as the rest of the Lions lifted off. Thankfully Yellow settled next to him after a dobosh, and Red landed neatly on Blue’s back.

“You doing okay there, Lanse?” Keith asked, sounding equal parts amused and concerned.

“Yeah, yeah.” he sighed, sitting up properly. “Just, kinda thought this’d go faster.”

“Man, hard same.” Hunk chuckled humourlessly.

“Everyone in position?” Shiro asked, and Lanse gave an affirmative along with the others. “Okay.” he said, voice going quiet, like he’d forgotten his mic was on. “Arms and legs... and I’ll form the head.” Black touched down on Red and Green’s backs, and Lanse let his eyes slide shut again. “Feel the bonds with your Lions.” Shiro said, this time speaking into the comms deliberately. “Now, channel your energy into forming Voltron. Focus... focus...”

Lanse opened himself to Blue, and with her energy flowing through him reached out into the emptiness between the Lions. He could sense the others, but only faintly, the barest flickers of colour and light on the other side of the endless expanse of nothingness.

“Is everyone bonding and focusing?” Shiro’s voice filtered through to him, and he disengaged from the un-space where Voltron’s quintessence was formed from the union of the Lions and their Paladins.

“Why was this so much easier before?” Keith complained before he was able to, and Shiro sighed.

“Let’s take a break.” Shiro sighed, and as he lifted off to allow Red and Green freedom of movement Allura appeared on Lanse’s screen again.

“Sorry to interrupt, but I may be able to help.” she grinned, and Lanse shivered. Whatever was about to happen, he was certain he wasn’t going to like it. “Yesterday, you weren’t able to form Voltron until you were in the heat of battle.”

“I’m listening.” he said slowly, lowering the volume of his comms in his ear to hear Allura better.

“Perfect.” she beamed. “Because I need to run a diagnostic test on all of the Castle's defenses.” she turned, manipulating a screen just off-camera. “This should help!” she tapped something on her screen, and Blue’s radar pinged a volley of energy bolts coming from the castle.

Lanse heard screams, and momentarily wasn’t sure if they were his teammates’ or his own. “Go, go, go!” he shoved Blue’s controls forwards, bolting from the impact points of the first volley as the castle continued to fire on them.

“Allura, what are you doing?” Keith grunted, Red pulling up short of a blast by far too small a margin.

“Running a diagnostic test on the Castle defenses and inspiring you!” she beamed, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “I believe in you, Paladins! Let fear be your guide! Form Voltron!” she cheered, and oh sure _now_ she smiled like she meant it.

“Quiznack this!” Lanse pulled back on Blue’s controls, pivoting on her hind legs. “If you’re gonna be a jerk about this I’m going home!” Blue leapt up the hill the castle was half buried in easily, dodging the high-powered blasts as they came, but when she hit the barrier it didn’t give. Lanse yelped, jarred in his seat by the impact, and glared at the video feed on his side screen. “Allura!”

“Did I ever say I was running a diagnostic on just the guns?” she asked, and he repeated his earlier rude hand gesture at her.

“Please stop!” Hunk begged, and Lanse turned Blue around to see the Yellow Lion dodging blasts as best it could with its heavier armour. “Please! Have mercy on us!”

Ooh, bad choice of words. Lanse winced, and pushed Blue back down the hill. If this did manage to get the humans in a Voltron-forming mindset, he didn’t want to be too far to join them.

“Do you think the galra are going to have mercy on you?” Allura spat, the word galra leaving her mouth like a curse. “Zarkon himself is probably on his way right now to destroy us all!” she pulled away from the camera, and the video feed cut off. An alert popped up over Blue’s radar, and Lanse swore.

“It’s locked on!”

“Fuck!” Pidge screamed, and Lanse gritted his teeth. He was _so_ telling Dad about this.


	2. Chapter 2

Lanse flopped down on the couch with a groan, slumping sideways until he was leaned up against Hunk’s open side. “Worst. Training. _Ever_.”

“Tell me about it.” Pidge mumbled, leaning back against Hunk’s other arm where it was laid along the top of the couch.

“Please tell me it’s not always gonna be this intense.” Hunk whined, and Lanse chuckled into his teammate’s cuirass.

“It’s not. Allura’s just being-”

“A raging bitch?” Pidge supplied, and Lanse lifted his head enough to blink at them.

“A what now?” Keith asked, falling onto the couch on Lanse’s other side and pulling Lanse off of Hunk by the back of his collar.

“It’s an insult.” Hunk shrugged. Lanse knocked Keith’s hand away and leaned back into his previous comfortable position propped up against Hunk.

“Usually aimed at women who are being ‘unreasonable’.” Pidge made air quotes around the word, voice dripping with disdain.

“Or just plain mean.” Hunk added, moving his arms down from the back of the couch to drape over both of them. Keith growled, a low sound that set Lanse’s hair on end, and he twisted to see the Red Paladin on his feet, ears flat against his head, glaring at Hunk.

“Keith?” Pidge sat up slightly, looking at their teammate curiously.

“Get your hands off him.” Keith snarled, and both of Hunk’s hands flew up in the air.

“Whoa, whoa!” he waved them at Keith, palms out, placating.

“What’s gotten into you?” Lanse frowned, sitting up and levelling a glare at his suitor. Keith growled again, a familiar threatening sound he’d heard from Rylak more than a few times, and when Hunk shrank back against the couch cushions Lanse rose to his feet. “Keith, knock it off.” he placed himself between Keith and Hunk, arms crossed, and Keith quieted. This close, Lanse could see his pupils had narrowed to slits, and only as he re-focused his eyes on Lanse’s face did they dilate back to a normal size.

He made a sound Lanse couldn’t identify, and dragged Lanse over to sit on the couch opposite the humans, who both looked absolutely baffled. Lanse rolled his eyes, but sat down and leaned on Keith’s shoulder. “Next time you want cuddles, just ask.” he chided gently, and Keith made a contented little rumble of a purr.

“Wait, what just happened?” Hunk blinked, and Pidge scoffed. 

“ _Aliens_.”

Keith’s hand landed on his head, and Lanse shifted his vocal cords slightly to mimic Keith’s contented purr as his suitor began carding fingers through his hair, claws scratching oh so gently against his scalp. As Keith worked slowly across his scalp, he slid slowly out of his body and back into the familiar quintessence web of his home. Time had taken a toll on the castle, leaving large swathes of its power web dim and flickering, but there was still something calming about gliding through the lines which had been the first things he ever saw with his second sight.

He cast his attention down, and brushed against the Lions’ hangars, feeling four of them faintly and Blue like a breath of clean, cold ocean air. She was happy, happy to be home with her pride regardless of whether or not they could yet become one again on command. He held onto that happiness as he rose through damaged systems back to his own body, and found himself smiling when he settled in his own skin again. Smiling and lying down, his head on Keith’s lap and fingers still carding tenderly through his hair. A claw traced the back of his ear, and Lanse did his best impression of a happy galran chirp without shifting himself the proper vocal cords. Keith chuckled, and Lanse opened his eyes at the sound of the hall door opening.

“Are we at full power on condenser number five yet?” Allura asked, and he turned his head to bury his face in Keith’s lap with a groan.

“No, still just 84%.” Dad replied, and Lanse tensed as Keith made a strangled noise, belatedly realising exactly how close he’d put his face to Keith’s crotch. He bolted upright, cheeks burning blue, and found Keith’s face equally darkened with a purple blush.

“You did it!” Allura clapped her hands together once, and Lanse twisted to look at his half-sister as Keith shifted awkwardly in place. “You formed Voltron!”

“No.” Keith said, ears back but not quite pressed flat as they’d been earlier. “The shooting stopped and the particle barrier shut down, so we just flew in.”

“What?” Allura asked, anger evident in her near-flat tone.

“Oh, right, uh, sorry Princess. I put the defense system tests on hold to make sure the fire suppressors were working.”

“What are you guys doing in here?” Shiro asked as he walked in through another door, sounding almost disappointed. “We’re not taking a break.”

Like he hadn’t told them to take five just a couple doboshes ago. Traitor.

“Shiro’s right. You should be training.” Allura agreed, and Lanse was tempted to make another rude gesture at her but Dad was standing right there and he’d probably get in trouble for it.

“We’ve _been_ training.” Hunk complained, letting his arms down from the back of the couch. “When are we going back to Earth?”

“I’m not going back until we find my family.” Pidge leaned forwards, away from Hunk’s arm.

“Guys, there won’t _be_ an Earth if we don’t figure out how to fight Zarkon.” Shiro said, cutting in before either of the other humans could say anything further. Lanse’s gut twisted, and he felt a sharp pang of something like jealousy. They still had a homeworld, families, somewhere to go back to. All that was left of his entire culture was this ship and the people and things on it.

“How are we going to fight?” Keith’s voice, along with the arm sliding around his waist, pulled him back to the moment. “We can’t even figure out how to form Voltron.”

“Well, I’m not surprised.” Dad admitted, and Lanse’s eyebrows shot up. “You know, the original Paladins fought hundreds of battles together, side by side. They were like a pack of yalmors, linked at the ears.” he mimed yalmor ears with his hands, and Lanse had to stifle a giggle.

“And that was before Father even built Voltron, right?”

“Before he helped build it, yes.” Dad nodded.

“Wow, yeah, that’s _definitely_ not us.” Pidge snorted.

“During the last attack, your survival instincts forced you to work as a team, but that will only get you so far.” Dad explained. “You'll have to become a real team to have any chance of forming Voltron and then beating Zarkon next time. You should try working out on the training deck.”

“There’s a training deck?” Hunk asked, tilting his head slightly.

“It’s more of a room than a deck, really.” Lanse shrugged. “Dad’s just a weirdo.”

“Whatever it’s called, it sounds like something we should make use of.” Shiro clapped his hands twice. “Up an’ at ‘em.”

“I’ll go get the defense system diagnostic finished.” Allura said, and Dad acknowledged her with a nod before leading them out of the lounge, Shiro on his heels. Keith fell into step just behind and to the right of their leader, and Lanse took his place behind the Red Paladin. Hunk kept pace at his side, and Pidge next to Keith put them in full formation. It was kinda funny almost, how they fell in line without even thinking about it but couldn’t pull together to form Voltron. Maybe they had to not be thinking about it?

Huh, there might be something to that, actually. Yesterday he’d not been thinking about Voltron at all when they managed to combine, and he doubted any of the others had been either. Shiro hadn’t even mentioned it in his pep talk.

“Hey, Lanse.” Hunk elbowed him in the side, just under his armour, and he looked over at his human teammate. “What was that thing with Keith, earlier?” he asked, whispering like galra didn’t have ears more than sensitive enough to pick up a conversation not five paces behind them.

“I really don’t know.” he shook his head, not bothering to lower his voice. “We’re talking about it later though, Keith.” he directed the latter sentence at his suitor’s back. One of Keith’s ears twitched, and Lanse nodded. “I’m sure it’s just a cultural misunderstanding. I’m ten thousand deca-phoebs out of date, after all.”

“Idunno, man.” Hunk frowned at Keith’s back. “On Earth-”

“We’re not on Earth.” Lanse interrupted. “And Keith’s not human. We’ll talk about it later, and beyond that it’s none of your business.”

“Alright, jeez.” Hunk raised his hands in a placating gesture. Lanse faced forwards again, and chewed gently on the inside of his lower lip as he contemplated things. He wasn’t stupid, he knew that Keith had gotten aggressive over him cuddling up to Hunk, but the all-important question was _why_. If the answer wasn’t right, well, he’d need to put in a lot more work than he’d thought to keep their relationship functional.

\---

“Two, two, one two.” Dad’s voice filled the training room from the overhead speakers, and Lanse traced a thumb over the lines of light in his armour that his bayard would come out of if he called it. “Okay, listen up, guys. The Paladin code demands that you put your team members' safety above your own.”

Lanse nodded. Zarkon- no, not Zarkon, Uncle Denkin. It had been Uncle Denkin who taught him the Paladin code, reciting it with him line by line nestled between Blue’s paws.

“Wait, wait, wait. What’s going on?” Hunk’s voice dragged him from his thoughts, and Lanse glanced at his teammate just in time to see Hunk’s shield materialise. “Whoa! Did you guys get one of these?”

Lanse activated his own, and dropped into a defensive stance as he eyes the floating little drones. He knew this exercise, he’d run it with Rylak dozens of times. She’d let him get shot in the back more than once, after they broke up.

“Get ready.” Shiro ordered, and Lanse raised his shield higher as the drones began to circle. Hunk yelped and ducked the first shot aimed his way, and a higher cry from behind him told Lanse that Pidge was down. A tick later Hunk went as well, diving headfirst into the floor, and Lanse backed up to put himself back to back with Keith and Shiro.

“Protect your teammates, or no-one will be there to protect you!” Dad reminded them from the speakers.

“Not helping!” he yelled up at the control booth.

“Time to increase intensity.” Dad said as if he hadn’t heard him, and the drones began moving faster, circling so rapidly Lanse could barely track them.

“You holding up alright, Lanse?” Keith asked, and Lanse chuckled.

“I should be asking you that.” he teased, flicking at the settings of his shield so it polarised to the next blast and started reflecting the shots instead of absorbing them. “I _own_ this drill.” he grinned over his shoulder at his suitor. “You just concentrate on doing your part.”

Keith dropped to one knee, Shiro doing the same in his peripheral vision, and Lanse only barely mimicked them in time to bounce a drone shot into the floor that would’ve hit Keith in the back. “Both of you, focus!” Shiro snapped.

“Lanse, look out!” Keith lurched back into him, knocking him off-balance, and he felt more than heard the floor open behind him, dropping Keith to the padded floor of the under-room beneath them.

“Keith!” he yelped, automatically reaching for the Red Paladin, and a drone hit him at the small of his back. He toppled down into darkness, and landed heavily on an armoured figure that let out a familiar groan at the impact.

“You hurt?” Keith mumbled, and Lanse dropped his head to rest the front of his helmet on Keith’s.

“Only my pride.” he grumbled. A sharp yelp and soft fwump signalled Shiro joining them, and he pushed up off of Keith with a sigh. “You alright, Shiro?”

“I’m good.” he groaned, and Lanse could faintly make out a thumbs up in the barely-there light from their armour and the exit sign.

“I’m fine too.” Keith huffed, sounding petulant, and Lanse chuckled.

“I figured. You would’ve complained more about me landing on you, otherwise.” he leaned down to press a kiss to the tip of Keith’s nose, then rose to his feet and offered the Red Paladin a hand. “C’mon, Dad’s not gonna stop at just one program.”

“How many are there?” Shiro asked as Lanse pulled Keith up to stand in front of him.

“At least a hundred, but most of them are specialised to different Paladin combinations and scenarios.” he explained. Keith wound an arm tight around his waist, and Lanse rolled his eyes. “Keith, c’mon, we need to get back up to the training room.” he stepped away from Keith, and reminded himself again that they had to have a talk later about boundaries and proper behaviour while on duty. Or, well, proper behaviour towards others. Lanse had no intention of being purely professional with his probably-future-husband every time they were in uniform.

He gestured for Keith to climb the ladder back up to the training room’s main floor first, and took the chance to admire the Red paladin’s ass in the tightly fitted flight suit. Yeah, no, he was _definitely_ not gonna try to keep things professional 100% of the time while Keith was looking like that. He scaled the ladder easily, and found Dad waiting for them.

“Alright, for this next exercise I’ll need a volunteer.” his eyes scanned over them, and Lanse made to raise his hand. “Not you, Leo. You’ve got an unfair advantage.”

“Fair.” he lowered his hand, and smiled when Keith took it in his own.

“Uh, what are we volunteering for?” Hunk raised his hand, and Dad beamed.

“Hunk! Excellent, excellent. You go stand over there, and I’ll explain it once the rest of you lot are up in the booth with me. Come along now.” he gestured for them to follow, and Lanse released Keith’s hand to pat Hunk on the shoulder.

“Don’t worry, I’m pretty sure I know this one. It’s only as painful as you make it.”

“That’s not helpful!” Hunk called after him as Keith took his hand back and all but bodily dragged him away, and Lanse ducked his head as he giggled.

Once up in the control booth, he leaned against the back wall as Dad pulled up a familiar program. “Alright, I’ll need another volunteer in a tick.” he looked over his shoulder at them, and Lanse elbowed Keith.

“You should do it.” he suggested. Hunk had seemed sorta wary of Keith earlier, and Lanse couldn’t exactly blame him after the incident in the lounge, but running the maze together should help.

“Alright. If one of you could step up here.” Dad gestured next to him, and Keith stepped forwards. “Ah, wonderful. Here, put this on.” he handed Keith a naked comm unit, just an earpiece and a mic on a little stick, and Keith put it in without complaint as a map appeared on a holoscreen in front of him.

“Hunk, you ready?” Dad asked, moving his hand to rest on the speaker button so his voice would be projected through the whole training room.

“What am I supposed to be ready for, exactly?” Hunk asked, and Lanse grinned. Watching a first-time maze run was always fun. It had taken him and Rylak half the course to get the hang of it, and even though he’d been the one walking into walls it was hilarious in hindsight.

“To form Voltron, you must trust in each other.” Dad half chided. “This ancient Paladin maze will teach you that trust. Your teammate can see the walls, but you cannot. So, listen carefully. If you touch the walls, you'll get a slight shock.”

“Makes sense.” Hunk agreed. “But, wait, who’s guiding my through?”

“Take two steps forward.” Keith instructed, and Lanse pushed off the wall to go stand next to him and watch the map.

“Does it _have_ to be Keith?” Hunk complained up at them, and Lanse rolled his eyes.

“Don’t worry, Hunk.” he said, leaning an arm on Keith’s shoulder. and getting close enough the mic would pick him up. “I’ll smack him if he walks you into a wall.”

“You’ll do no such thing.” Dad scolded, and Lanse yelped as he was grabbed by the ear and pulled a few steps to the side. “You’ll get your turn on the mic.”

“Can I at least watch?” he huffed, and Dad pulled up a second map display.

“Like I said.” Keith repeated himself. “Two steps forward, turn two thirds of a rad to your right, and take three steps that direction.”

“Two steps-” Hunk muttered, stepping towards them... and running face first into a wall. Lanse sniggered. “Hey!”

“Two steps _forward_.” Keith repeated himself with a scowl.

“Hello, there’s a _wall_?” Hunk gestured at the air in front of himself, and yelped as he was shocked again.

“Because you’re going backwards!”

“You’re _so_ bad at this.” Hunk huffed and crossed his arms, pivoting on his heel. “Two steps, turn right, and thre-” he yelped as he got zapped again, staggering backwards. “Quit walking me into walls!”

“Quit following my directions wrong!”

“I’m following your directions perfectly.” Hunk turned to glare up at them in the booth. “You’ve just got it out for me.”

“I do not!”

“Coran, I’m not doing this with Keith on the mic.” Hunk crossed his arms again, jaw set stubbornly.

Dad sighed heavily, and Lanse bit his lip. Failure or not, that had still been funny. He just hoped they got past this rough patch fast enough for it to be funny to Hunk and Keith as well sooner rather than later.

“Why don’t we try something outside of the training room?” Lanse suggested, looking from Dad to where Shiro still stood against the back wall.

“That sounds like a good idea.” Shiro nodded. “Coran, are there any exercises we can do in the Lions? They’re fairly intuitive, but familiarising ourselves with the controls a bit more can’t hurt.”

“An excellent suggestion.” Dad nodded. “Paladins, to your Lions!”

“Uh, can you let me out of this maze?” Hunk asked, and Lanse stifled a giggle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact I noticed while rewatching the maze scene to write this, Lanse’s maze in canon doesn’t match Keith’s map. Even if he’d followed the instructions properly, he would’ve wound up walking into walls.


	3. Chapter 3

“Alright.” Dad said, his face on one of Blue’s side screens next to the intra-Voltron-comm activity bars. “You'll never be able to form Voltron unless each of you has a strong bond with his Lion.”

“Well, I’ve got that in the bag.” he grinned, and Dad gave him a flat look.

“Yes, Lanse, but the others need practise. Which is why you’re performing this exercise. Everyone, put your Lions into a nosedive!” he made a wide gesture with his arm, and Lanse chuckled as he flipped Blue into an elegant dive. “This is an expert-level drill that you really shouldn't attempt until you've been flying for years, but, uh, we're in a bit of a rush, so here we go.”

Lanse shut his eyes, and reached out to Blue. “Activating training helmets!” the light filtering in through his closed eyelids cut off, and he heard the others panicking but they sounded distant, faint compared to Blue’s bubbling elation at their speed, at flying with her pride again after so long apart. He opened their eyes, and saw again the planet’s surface approaching, scrubby grass and sandy ground gently rolling towards grand rock formations in the near distance. And next to them, Red, keeping pace with them, her Paladin inside... worried?

“Lanse? _Lanse!_ ” Keith’s voice filtered through to him, sounding as worried as he could faintly feel via Red.

“I’m here.” he said, his voice sounding very far away to his own ears.

“Thank the Ancestors.” Keith sighed. “You good?”

“I’m great.” Lanse grinned. “Bet I can pull out closer than you.”

“Oh yeah?” Keith’s grin was audible, and Red’s excitement was a tangible thing in the air between them. “What with?”

“Tell you later.” he laughed. “Race you down!” he pushed forward on Blue’s controls, urging her faster, and Red kept pace easily.

“Must be getting close.” Keith remarked as Blue flashed up the first proximity warning for the ground on her main screen.

“Must be.” he smiled. Keith wasn’t getting any hints from him, he’d have to work it out on his own with Red. “You getting scared?” he cajoled, and Keith’s answering growl cut right through Blue’s gleeful roaring waves through to a deep, ancient part of his brain, sending hot shivers down his spine straight to his core.

“I’m not scared!” Keith snarled, and Red shot forwards towards the ground. Lanse laughed, and urged Blue faster to keep up with him. The proximity warning flashed bigger and more insistent, the distance to the ground ticking away, but Lanse’s eyes were on Keith and Red. He could do it, Lanse knew he could do it. He was as true a Paladin as Father had been, as true as Rylak.

“Keith, pull up!” he shouted, throwing a hand out towards the Red Lion reflexively. Blue swerved, and Lanse yelped as they both hit the apex of the hill under them at an angle, skidding a fair distance before stilling, their Lions’ heads in the dirt.

“Did I win?” Keith groaned as Blue pulled back from Lanse’s mind, and he chuckled weakly in response as, over the comms, he heard Pidge bail and run Green into something.

“Depends.” Lanse pushed himself back upright in his seat, stretching his arms over his head. “What’d you bet?”

“You tell me what you bet, first.”

“Oh?” Lanse grinned, pulling his helmet off and turning to activate a private video call between himself and his suitor. Aaand coming face to face with a reminder that not only were they on whole-team comms, but that his dad was watching. Watching, and looking very unimpressed.

“I think I’m getting the hang of this.” Shiro said, and Dad’s eyes flicked to a different spot as a smile split his face.

“Excellent, Shiro! I’ll deactivate the training mode, and you can all fly back to the castle. I think I’ve got just the exercise to get you all past this.”

“On it.” Lanse nodded, putting his helmet back on as the visor cleared.

“And Lanse?”

He winced despite himself. Dad sounded, not happy. “Yeah?” he glanced at the video screen, shoulders already rising towards his ears.

“Don’t make me give you and Keith the same ultimatum I gave your father and King Blaytz.” he said sternly, and the video cut out.

“Do I even want to know?” Keith asked as Lanse pulled Blue’s head out of the dirt.

“ _I_ don’t want to know.”

“Get back to the castle and you probably won’t have to.” Shiro pointed out, and Lanse nodded.

“On it.” he waited for Red to shake the last large clumps of dirt from her head, and leapt up into the sky. “Oh, and Shiro?”

“Yes?”

“Great job on bonding with Black.” he beamed. “Figures you’d be the first to get the hang of it.”

Keith huffed, a barely-there sound Lanse wouldn’t’ve noticed if not for the brief flash of the Red Paladin’s comm activity indicator, and he resolved to drag his suitor aside for a talk at the first chance. Obviously, this was a conversation that couldn’t wait until they were back in their room for the night.

\---

“Now, the most important part of Paladin training is being able to meld your minds and focus on one thing: Voltron.” Dad said, once again in the booth as they were arranged in the circle in the middle of the room. Only this time they were facing inwards, seated, and wearing a piece of technology he’d never actually gotten to try before. The holo-synch headbands. “Everything else has to fade away. This technique will be essential every time you form Voltron.”

Lanse kept his eyes shut, and focused on his breathing. Clear his mind, he could do that. Just, let Blue in and let her muffle everything else like thick ice. It took a moment to find a balance with her, enough to muffle his thoughts without muffling the headband-facilitated connection to the others, but once they were stable he tuned back in to what Dad was saying.

“Clear everything. Now, focus on forming your Lion.”

Forming? Lanse cracked an eye open, and realised they each had a holographic image floating in front of them. Keith had what looked like a blue star, Shiro something pale and mechanical, and he didn’t get a great look at Hunk’s before it turned into a little hologram of Yellow but he caught a flash of hands the same colour as Hunk’s and a sharp looking knife. His own image, when his eyes flicked up to it, stole his breath like a punch in the gut. The lake. The lake from back home, where he’d gone skating with Dad and Amalia at so many winterfests. He squeezed his eyes shut, and let Blue freeze over the emotions welling in him. He could mourn later, right now he had to form Voltron.

He pictured Blue, pictured her soaring forwards like he could sense the others doing, and felt a strange sensation as she neared the others’ envisioned Lions. Like an afterimage, an echo of a flash, sparks of familiar colours around him but pale and washed out, not burning bright amidst an even brighter united signature.

“Good!” Dad’s voice came through to him alongside a cautious brush of concern from Keith. “Keep focusing! Only one to go!”

Lanse reached out to gently twine his fingers with Keith’s, their hands resting together on the floor between them, and brushed up against the human minds in the headband’s circuit.

“Pidge, stop thinking about your mate.” Keith snapped, and Lanse felt the Green Paladin startle.

“I wasn’t!” Pidge protested. “Hunk was rooting around in my head!”

“I- I thought we were open.” Hunk spluttered, and Lanse frowned as he felt Hunk’s presence vanish. “You can look in my head hole.” he offered.

“Everyone has to be able to look in everyone’s head holes!” Dad exclaimed, and Lanse couldn’t contain a snigger. “Clear your minds!”

Keith gave his hand a gentle squeeze, and Lanse returned the pressure before turning his thoughts back to Voltron, to Blue, to that glimpse he’d gotten of his teammates’ colours in an echo of Voltron’s quintessence signature.

“Good! Almost there.” Dad coaxed, and Lanse focused on how it felt in the cockpit when Blue transformed. Admittedly he’d only felt it the once, and the whole first-time-forming-Voltron deal had pushed physical sensation to the backseat, but Blue provided enough slivers of memory for him to piece it together. “Now, form Voltron.” Dad urged, and Lanse grinned as the colours around him brightened one by one, cream to gold, mourning pink to burning red, pallid purple to the rich, deep hue of galran blood.

“Yes!” Dad cheered as Pidge’s dry green began to perk up, and Lanse opened his eyes to see, just for a heartbeat, a holographic Voltron standing proud in the center of the circle. Then Green flickered into a picture of two humans, then vanished entirely as Pidge shot to standing with a muffled sound of frustration and tore off the headband, throwing it down hard enough to bounce.

“Pidge!”

“I’m done with this!” brown eyes narrowed as Pidge glared at the headband, then the rest of them, arms crossed tight. “Look, I don’t like everyone grubbing around in my head!”

“Come on, Pidge, we’re starting to get the hang of this.” Shiro soothed.

“I’m just- I’m just tired, okay?” Pidge replied, eyes fixed on the wall somewhere past Lanse’s shoulder and voice sounding much younger than Lanse had ever heard it.

“Okay.” Shiro relented, and turned his head to address the rest of them. “Let’s take a break.”

“Probably for the best.” Dad sighed. “Lanse, would you grab some hydro-pacs?”

“On it.” he flashed his dad a thumbs up, and rose to walk over to the little storage unit of hydro-pacs. They were designed for consumption during or after physical training sessions, not mental ones, but it had been forever since breakfast and Allura’s stupid stunt with the castle’s defenses had made them miss lunch. They could probably all use the boost. He gathered an armful, and when he turned around Dad was right there with a smile on his face.

“Here, let me.” he picked the pouches from Lanse’s arms, and Lanse rolled his eyes once Dad’s back was turned. Drop a couple glasses _one_ time and you lost all trust forever. He followed Dad back to where the rest of the team was sitting and tossed the pouch in his off hand to Keith, who seemed focused on something Shiro was saying, before flopping down next to Hunk.

“You’ve been working hard.” Dad conceded, passing out the rest of the hydro-pacs as Lanse punctured his own with the attached straw. “Maybe it’s time to relax a little.”

Lanse shifted to lean against Hunk, and every hair on his arms stood on end as Keith let out a growl so low it was barely audible. Right, ugh, they still had to talk about his behaviour. He turned his head to give Keith a hard look, and sucked noisily on his hydro-pac.

“Manners, Lanse.” Dad scolded him idly. He pulled the straw out slightly to make the suction noise even louder, earning a quick little grin from Keith and weary sigh from Dad.

“Lanse, stop making that awful noise. What are you all doing lying around?” Allura demanded, stomping across the room to them. “You’re supposed to be training!” Lanse narrowed his eyes at her and took another noisy sip. She made a rude hand gesture and he grinned.

“Lanse.” Shiro’s frown was audible. He stuck his straw the rest of the way back in.

“Just resting a bit.” Dad said quickly. “Can’t push too hard, you know.”

“What do you mean, can’t push too hard?” Allura snapped, eyes flicking from Dad to Keith. Lanse bit down on his straw to keep from saying something stupid, and Hunk’s shoulders pressed against his more firmly, a solid and grounding pressure. “Get up, you lazy lumps! It’s time you faced the gladiator.”

“Gladiator?” Hunk asked, and Lanse sucked down the rest of his hydro-pac quickly before standing.

“It’s a training program.” he explained, offering Hunk a hand up. “I’ve been praticing against it since I could walk, more or less.”

“Oh, alright.” Hunk let Lanse pull him to his feet, and sucked down his hydro-pac in one go. “Where should I-?”

“I’ll get that.” Dad said, plucking Lanse and Hunk’s pouches from their hands and holding out a hand for the rest of the Paladins to give him theirs as well.

It only took a couple doboshes for Dad to get situated in the control booth, and when he waved down at them Lanse grinned. “Okay, Lanse, since you have experience with the gladiator I want you to show the rest of the Paladins how it’s done.”

“Will do.” he grinned, and materialised his bayard as a gladiator dropped from a far opening the ceiling. It took its sweet time standing up, and Lanse willed the bayard in his hand to activate. It glowed in his hand, stretching and shifting, and with a burst of shimmery light motes a trident appeared in his hand, the outer prongs sharpened versions of a bayard’s front end and the middle a glowing blue bar of energy. Behind him, he heard Hunk whistle appreciatively.

He gave the trident a twirl as the gladiator lurched forwards, deflecting its first attack, and laughed as it came around for a second. It was set to the lowest possible level! He’d not fought it at this difficulty since he was barely of age for a birthday fight. He deflected another two telegraphed blows without breaking his stride, and began circling the gladiator as it kept attacking him. So straightforward, no finesse or strategy at all. “I’ll have that.” he quipped, swirling the trident to one hand as he knocked the gladiator’s staff from its hands.

“Lanse, be serious.” Dad chided, and he laughed as he set the staff spinning in his other hand.

“Okay, okay.” he tossed the staff up high, grabbed the haft of his trident, and put his whole body into a spin that brought the tines through the gladiator’s metal torso at an angle. It twitched, sparked, and then the staff fell end-first on its head and it collapsed through the floor in two distinct pieces. “Was that acceptable?” he asked cheekily, and was answered with a heavy sigh. Whatever, the show hadn’t been for Dad anyways. He met Keith’s eyes, dark in a flushed face, and winked.

“Alright, everyone!” Dad said with audibly forced cheer. “Now that Lanse has show you the ropes, time for a teamwork exercise. With this next setting, five paladins must fight as one to bring down the gladiator.”

“He means we all have to land a hit.” Lanse translated for Hunk, who was looking uncertain again.

“Well, let’s circle up.” Shiro made a gesture with one of his hands, and Lanse nodded as he moved into position equidistant between Keith and Hunk. Looking up, he eyed the arrangement of drop spots overhead. The gladiator could come out of any one of them, any tick now.

A hiss from behind him made Lanse tense, and he spun as the gladiator hit the ground with a clank. It lunged at Hunk, and as Lanse willed his bayard back into rifle form the Yellow Paladin fired his much bigger, heavier gun. At the floor, and then in an arc that came dangerously close to hitting Pidge.

“Watch it!” Pidge yelped, and Lanse winced as the gladiator jabbed the charged end of its staff into Hunk’s stomach. That was never fun. Hunk groaned, and Pidge charged the gladiator with a battle cry only to be knocked back into tripping over Hunk in three quick strikes.

“Keith, Shiro!” Lanse shouted as he moved to stand by his fallen teammates, eyes flicking to the Paladins who should be backing him up right now. Keith was already on his way, sword out and ready, but Shiro was still standing on the other side of the circle. “Shiro!” he repeated, and the Black Paladin jolted into action.

“Lanse, look out!”

His eyes flicked to Keith, then to the approaching gladiator, and Lanse barely had half a tick to get his rifle up in a block. Okay, probably should’ve been paying more attention to the enemy than his teammates. He twisted away from the next swing, baiting the gladiator around away from Hunk and Pidge. “Keith, keep it busy.” he leapt back from a telegraphed swing and let his suitor take his place as Shiro approached. He moved with a familiar fluid grace, parrying the gladiator’s strikes with ease. He threw a grin over his shoulder, and Lanse’s heart fluttered in his chest. Keith was showing off for him, as much as the gladiator’s low setting allowed.

“Duck!” he called, and Keith dropped into a crouch that pulled the flight suit tight across his very, _very_ nice butt. Which would’ve been great if the gladiator had been making another horizontal sweep, but instead it swung overhand and cracked its staff over Keith’s helmet.

“Keith!” Shiro cried.

The gladiator took a step back and spun its staff, catching Keith under the chin with the charged end, and Lanse’s bayard tilted down as he lurched forwards without thinking. “End program!” he snapped, and the gladiator’s optic flashed red. It lashed out, jabbing him in the gut, and he doubled over with a wheeze. Another quick blow to the back of his helmet knocked him to the ground, and he let his bayard dissolve with a low groan. _Quiznack_ that hurt. He was so getting an earful later, making a stupid mistake like that. There was the sound of something powering up behind him, then a thunk and groan from Shiro as the gladiator dispatched him too.

A tick later he heard the gladiator dropping through the floor, victorious.

“That combat simulator was set at a level for for an altean child!” Allura snapped, storming over from where she must’ve come in during the exercise. “You're not even close to working as a team, let alone ready to face Zarkon! And Lanse, what on Altea were you doing? You had multiple clear shots at the gladiator and took _none of them_.”

He groaned and pushed himself upright enough to glare at his sister. “You don’t have to rub it in.”

“Ah, Princess.” Dad’s voice came over the speakers before she could rip into any of the others. “Perhaps we should break for dinner, it’s been a long day and I believe our Paladins missed lunch.”

Allura looked like she wanted to argue, but after a few ticks exhaled sharply through her nose and turned on her heel. “I’ll be on the bridge.”

“Well, that was a disaster.” Pidge said flatly as the door closed behind Allura.

The only response Lanse, or any of the others, could muster up was a vague groan of agreement.


	4. Chapter 4

“Hey, Keith.” Lanse laid a hand on the Red Paladin’s shoulder, pulling him gently to a halt. “We’ve gotta talk.”

“O-kay?” Keith frowned, looking over at where the other Paladins were filing into the dining room.

“Alone.” he clarified, and Keith nodded. “Look, I’ll be the first to admit I’m no expert on galran customs. I was trained as a Paladin, not a diplomat, and even Allura’s ten thousand deca-phoebs out of date.”

Keith’s head tilted slightly to the side, and Lanse forced himself not to get distracted by how _cute_ he was.

“So, with that said, believe me when I say I don’t know what the _quiznack_ your problem is.” he said firmly, and Keith’s eyes went wide. “Ancients know the possessiveness is hot and all, but we’re Paladins, we’re part of a team.”

“That doesn’t-” Keith started, and Lanse cut him short with a raised hand.

“We’re part of a team, Keith, and the unity of that team comes before everything else. I want this to work, I want _us_ to work, but if you can’t handle me being friends with our teammates then maybe we should take a step back.” he gritted his teeth, breaking eye contact with Keith to look down at the floor. “I don’t-”

“I’m sorry.”

Lanse’s head snapped up, and Keith’s palm cupped the side of his jaw, claws only just barely touching his skin. “For what?” he asked, and it came out more breathy than sceptical but at least he’d remembered to ask.

“For not realizing that you consider them clade.” Keith’s thumb stroked slowly over his cheek, and Lanse shivered as it lingered on the mark under his eye. “We met them so recently, I assumed you would regard them as strangers.”

“We’ve already formed Voltron once.” Lanse chuckled, lifting a hand to curl over Keith’s. “I don’t think it’s possible for us to be strangers after that.”

“Maybe not.” Keith leaned in, and stopped just barely shy of Lanse’s lips. “May I kiss you?”

“Mmm.” Lanse grinned, staring into Keith’s purple and gold eyes. “Just a quick one, then we have to get to dinner.” he leaned forwards, moving his hand from Keith’s to tangle in his suitor’s hair. It make not have been the prettiest hairstyle, but it was certainly a very practical and enjoyable one. Keith purred when they parted, and Lanse chuckled as he leaned in again, rocking up on his toes to more easily plant a chaste miss on the top of his suitor’s nose. “Dinner.” he said softly, and Keith nodded as he let him pull away.

Lanse moved to straighten his clothes, then remembered he was still in full armour and settled for brushing probably-non-existent dust off his pauldrons as he and Keith walked into the dining room. Pidge had taken one of the end seats on one side, with Hunk and Shiro on the other end of the same side. Lanse frowned briefly, but fell into the empty seat next to Hunk’s and did his best to ignore how the seating order kept pinging in his head as Wrong. He’d never seen Father and his fellow Paladins seated in any order but the way they were arranged when the Lions flew in formation.

“Ahoy, your Paladins! I’ve whipped up a big batch of focusing food!” Dad’s voice drew his attention back to the moment, and Lanse glanced at what dinner actually was. Nutrient goo and ration bars, great. Not that he’d really expected anything else, it _had_ been ten thousand deca-phoebs since anyone stocked the pantry. “After this meal, you’ll be forming Voltron six times a movement, and twice on the astral conflux!”

“Smells great, Coran. Thanks.” Shiro lied, and Lanse reached to grab a ration bar. Before he could move very far, though, he heard the sound of something activating, and felt familiar pressure around his wrists. His breath caught in his throat, and then the cuffs activated. They didn’t bind to each other, though, but instead drew his arms apart, linking with Hunk and Keith’s wrists.

“Dad, what the quiznack!” he yelped, and his dad just chuckled.

“I saw a lot of solid individual performances today, but you're still struggling to work as a team. So, welcome to the final bonding exercise of the day.” Dad grinned wickedly. Lanse was a little surprised he didn’t twirl his moustache. Hunk tried to pull his arm down, but not very hard. Evidently he put more force into it with his other hand though, because Shiro’s arm moved slightly before he pulled it back to where it had been. Hunk looked down at his dinner in dismay, then up at Dad.

“Coran, I want you to think about what you're doing.” he said, his voice low.

“Oh, this one’s a classic.” Dad kept grinning, forging on as if Hunk hadn’t spoken at all. “You get to feed each other, like a pack of Yalmors!”

“Daaad.” he complained, not whining because he was a Paladin now and Paladins didn’t whine.

“Now, now.” Dad shook his finger. “Trust goes both ways, Lanse.”

“Ugh.” he huffed, and slumped back in his seat.

“If it makes you feel any better, it took the original Paladins of Voltron most of a varga to get the hang of it.” Dad chuckled, and Lanse couldn’t help but giggle a little as well as he sat back up. The mental image of Father and Uncle Denkin pouting at Dad across the table trying to convince him to remove the cuffs wasn’t one he would’ve ever considered without knowing that.

“Well, lucky me I’m right handed.” Pidge grinned down on the end, then yelped as a cuff came up to drag the free limb down against the chair arm. “Me and my big mouth.”

“Take turns?” Keith asked him, and Lanse nodded.

“We’ll see how long the others take to catch on.” he leaned forward to grab a ration bar, Keith letting Lanse drag his arm along without complaint, and after taking a bite moved his arm to offer it to Keith. The Red Paladin’s look of shock was wonderful, and Lanse chuckled. “I promise, if I’m sick you’re not catching it from this.” he wiggled the ration bar in his hand. Keith flushed, but took a small bite.

“That tastes awful.” he muttered once he swallowed, and Lanse shrugged as he let Hunk drag his other arm around.

“Little stale, but not that bad.”

“A little?” Keith asked incredulously as Lanse moved the bar back to take another bite for himself.

“Okay, yeah, they’re kinda bad but like, not much worse than I was expecting.” he shrugged, and at Keith’s incredulous look gave his suitor a grin. “What? I never said they tasted good fresh.” he said around a mouthful of dry, mostly tasteless ration bar. Its fake-fruit flavour had faded with age, leaving just the slightest hint of it to ineffectively ‘cover’ the bitter-sour tang of concentrated vitamins and such. He missed real food.

\---

Things went alright for the first few doboshes, Hunk dragging his arm around and Keith making faces at the taste of the stale ration bar, but right when Lanse thought the humans were on the verge of figuring out how to cooperate Allura breezed in. “Coran, Paladins.” she acknowledged them with a stiff nod of her head, and in his peripheral vision he saw Shiro sit up straighter.

“Princess.” he returned, and Lanse grinned.

“How’d things go on the bridge?” he asked, moving to prop his elbow on the edge of the table. And promptly yelping as a sporkful of nutrient goo was launched unceremoniously into his hair.

“Hey!” Hunk protested, and Lanse grimaced.

“My bad.” he admitted, and relaxed his arm. Right as Hunk pulled harder than he needed to, splaying Lanse’s hand across his lower face. “Ew, gross!” he recoiled, and on the far end of the table Pidge squawked.

“Keith, your hand’s in my food!”

“You’re the one who pulled it in there.” Keith snapped back, and Allura let out a low growl.

“Do Earthlings _ever_ stop complaining?” she asked rhetorically.

“Can’t you just give us a break?” Shiro asked, his tone sharper than Lanse would’ve dared use with Allura in such a mood. “Everyone’s been working really hard today.”

“Yeah!” Keith added, pulling Lanse’s arm with as he stood up. “We’re not some prisoners for you to toy with like- like-”

“Like a bunch of toy prisoners!”

“Yes! Thank you, Pidge.”

“You do not yell at the Princess!” Dad scolded.

“Oh, the Princess of _what_?” Pidge sneered. “We’re the only ones out here and she’s no Princess of ours!”

“Hey!” Lanse straightened up, leaning forward to glare around Keith at the Green Paladin. Right as Allura launched a sporkful of nutrient goo down the table with accuracy he hadn’t realised she possessed, splattering it over the whole left side of Pidge’s head. Most of it fell slowly, landing with a wet sort of splat, and then Lanse joined Pidge and Keith in glaring at Allura. She was supposed to be the mature one!

“Go loose, Pidge!” Keith snapped, and the two of them moved together to scoop up his plate and launch its contents at Allura’s face. Dad blocked it easily though, and Lanse spluttered as he was hit in the face with lukewarm nutrient goo. he shook it off, though more flecks stuck to his skin from Hunk doing the same next to him.

“Oh, it’s on now.” the Yellow Paladin grinned, and bent forward to quickly fill his mouth with goo. Gross, but effective. Lanse grinned, and when Hunk sat up he pressed on the human’s cheek to help spray his dad and sister with goop. They quickly shook themselves off, and Allura grabbed her plate and spork as she darted over to the opposite side of the table, flinging sporkfuls of goo as she went. After that, well, it quickly devolved into all out goo warfare. Gross, but kinda fun too, especially when he and Shiro and Hunk pressure-blasted Allura at more or less point blank range, making her stagger back swiping at her face and exclaiming in disgust.

Eventually, inevitably given their superior numbers and ammunition, she conceded, stumbling back to collapse in one of the few chairs she and Dad hadn’t accidentally upturned in the fight. Keith was warm against his side, even through their flight suits and armour, and Lanse looked over at Hunk and Shiro with a grin. He wasn’t sure which of them laughed first, maybe it was none of them, but Blue was laughing too and just for a moment everything felt _right_.

“Enough!” Allura snapped, and all of them fell silent, save Blue’s quiet bubbling laugh in the back of his head. “Do you see what you’re doing?”

Lanse glanced at his teammates, who looked just as confused and apprehenzive as he felt.

“You’re finally working together as one!” Allura beamed, and Lanse relaxed with a weak chuckle.

“Hey, she’s right!” Keith grinned, looking first at Lanse then at Pidge.

“I haven’t had that much fun in a while.” Pidge giggled.

“You guys thinking what I’m thinking?” Hunk asked with a grin.

“Let’s go form Voltron!” Shiro raised his arm, bringing Hunk’s with.

“Yeah!” Lanse smiled, echoed by the rest of the team.

“Well, actually I was thinking we could like, get these cuffs off and actually _eat_ dinner instead of throwing it around but, yeah! Voltron!” Hunk pumped his arms up, and Lanse staggered against his side. The lot of them quickly lost their balance, and the hair on the back of Lanse’s neck prickled as Keith laughed against his flight suit.

“Well, ahem.” Dad cleared his throat, and Lanse elbowed Keith into giving him room to sit up. “First things first, lets get you lot cleaned up. Wouldn’t want to get nutrient goo in the Lions’ upholstery, now would we?”

“Ancients, no.” Lanse shook his head, sending bits of green goo flying. 

“There’s a decontamination chamber on this floor.” Allura said, touching a lump of green in her hair with a frown. “Lanse, you can walk them through its operation while Coran and I shower and change.”

“A decontamination chamber?” Pidge asked as Dad deactivated the cuffs and they all set to pulling them off and massaging their wrists.

“Yeah. It’s to stop people from tracking in any contaminants after they do repairs.”

“But then, why’s it on this floor?” Hunk asked, and Lanse shrugged.

“We’ve got one on every other floor, more or less. No point in making the mechanics trek over half the hull just to get back in.” he pushed himself to his feet and offered a hand to Keith, choosing to ignore how Allura’s expression fell to a displeased sort of neutral. 

“Wait, wait. Over the _hull_?” Pidge’s eyes shone. “Are we in a _spaceship_?!”

“Um, yeah?” Lanse frowned, and Pidge let out an ear-piercing squeal while the rest of the Paladins stared openly at him. “Oh, like you’ve never lived on a spaceship.” he huffed at Keith, crossing his arms.

“Yeah, but they all looked like ships, not like this.” Keith gestured at the high vaulted ceiling. Lanse snorted.

“Fair.” he admitted.

“Coran, you’ve gotta show me the engines later. Please please please?” Pidge turned to Dad, hands clasped and eyes huge and pleading.

“Gladly.” Dad laughed. “But first, washing up.” he straightened up and put on a mock stern face, pointing at the door.

“Yes, Dad.” Lanse rolled his eyes, but couldn’t stop the smile from spreading across his face as he took Keith’s hand. “C’mon, if you think the castleship being spaceworthy is cool you’re gonna _love_ the decontamination process.”

\---

“Everyone ready to do this?” Shiro asked over comms as Blue’s skimmer bay doors closed under him.

“Roger that.” Pidge replied as he hopped off the skimmer and seated himself in Blue’s pilot seat.

“It’s on.” he grinned as she pulled him forward into the cockpit, breaths already synching with the excited beat of waves against the inside of his skull.

“Yes, sir!” Keith sounded like he was grinning, and Lanse’s heart fairly skipped a beat.

“I was born ready.” Hunk said, resolute and steady as his Lion’s element.

Lanse wasn’t sure if he heard it or felt it, but deep in the castle he could tell that Black roared. “Then let’s go.” Shiro said firmly.

“Yeah!” Lanse shut his eyes, and let Blue wash over him. He inhaled bitter cold, the tang of saltwater on his tongue, and his hands on her controls moved automatically. He could feel the others through the bond, feel their energies interweaving and melting together until the five of them were but sparks of colour in a unified void of brilliant white. He opened his eyes, and looked out over the front of the castle from nearly a ground level view. They’d done it.

They’d’ _done it!_ He laughed, punching the air as Hunk whooped and Pidge cheered. He could feel them, Pidge and Hunk’s elation and Keith’s softer joy and Shiro’s vibrant pride. Lanse laughed a little more, and tried to project appreciation through the bond to Shiro.

“I’m glad that worked.” Shiro muttered, chuckling half under his breath. “Would’ve been pretty embarrassing if it didn’t.”

“Yeah, definitely.” Pidge agreed.

“So, uh, now that we’ve done the whole Voltron thing again...” Hunk started, and Lanse realised the golden spark was radiating anxiety. “How do we un-Voltron?”

There was a beat, and Lanse could feel everyone’s attention turning to him.

“What? I’ve got just as much experience as you guys with the actual forming Voltron thing.” he protested. “How’d we do it after we beat Sendak?”

“I don’t know.” Pidge admitted after a moment.

“It just kinda, happened.” Keith added. “Just like forming Voltron, that time.”

“Well, if it took focus to form Voltron, it stands to reason that focus is how we’d dissolve it as well.” Shiro said, soothing both Hunk’s anxiety and the flickers of unease coming from Pidge. “Voltron, dissolve.”

Blue rumbled around him, and Lanse watched as the world dropped away outside as she shifted back to Lion mode. At the edge of her viewscreen he saw Yellow doing the same, and a split-tick later Black crashed down between them on her back. Red fell on their other side, transformation completing to leave the Guardian of Fire sprawled on her side, and Lanse couldn’t help but laugh.

“Next time, we do that airborne.” Pidge groaned.

“Agreed.” Keith and Shiro echoed, and Lanse nudged Blue forwards a couple steps so Black would have enough room to stand. Red rolled to her feet as well and came to sit next to them. If he looked really closely, Lanse imagined he could make out Keith’s outline through her golden eyes.

“Well, Paladins, I think that’s enough training for one day.” Shiro said, Black walking past Blue and shaking debris off her back as she went. “Everyone park back in the hangars, and meet in the lounge for debrief.”

“Debrief?” Hunk whined.

“We didn’t even do anything!” Keith agreed.

“Just, meet in the lounge.” Shiro sighed, and cut his comms.

“Last one there’s a rotten egg!” Pidge called as Green soared overhead.

“Hey, no fair!” Hunk complained, Yellow taking off after Green. “My hangar’s farther away!”

“See you back in the castle?” Keith asked, and Lanse nodded.

“See ya.” he cut his own comms, and let Blue mostly pilot herself back into the hangar. They’d formed Voltron, Keith was shaping up in his treatment of the other Paladins, and he had a cuddly bedmate to look forward to later. The only sour spot in all this was Allura. Or rather, Allura’s recent behaviour, namely her impossible expectations and blatant distaste for Keith. And he still had to tell Dad about her locking the weapons on them. It was sheer luck nobody’d gotten hurt!

His feet carried him out of Blue on autopilot once they landed, and in no time at all he found himself in front of the express elevator with Keith and Hunk. Oh, this was as good a chance as any! He sidled up next to his suitor and hook an arm through Keith’s. “So, Keith. That little chat we had earlier?”

“Yeah?” Keith tilted his head slightly, an adorable expression on his face.

“I think you had something to say to Hunk.” he jerked his head at the Yellow Paladin, and after a tick of adorable confusion Keith nodded.

“Right.” he turned towards the Yellow Paladin, back straight and shoulders squared. “I’m sorry for assuming you were making advances on my mate earlier.”

Lanse spluttered, grabbing Keith’s arm tighter. “Keith!”

“What?” he asked petulantly. “You said I could call you mine.”

“Not like that!”

“O-kaaay.” Hunk chuckled. “Is that why you got all growly and stuff?”

“Yes.” Keith nodded, and Lanse hung his head with a groan. They’d have a talk later, at some point, about what exactly they were to each other. Ancients knew he was happy to be Keith’s intended, and he wasn’t going to try courting anyone else without making sure Keith was okay with it, but that didn’t mean they were mates just yet.

“Oh look the elevator’s here.” he said loudly, pulling Keith forward as the doors opened. Hunk chuckled, and Lanse felt his cheeks warming. Keith had said it so casually, so matter-of-fact-ly, as if it was a given that they’d both survive long enough to court each other properly and have their union recognised in the many eyes of Schee’rit, and Ancients he _hoped_ that would be the case. But if it wasn’t, if one of them fell in battle... ten thousand years ago, a galran mate-bond had been for life. He couldn’t imagine putting Keith through that kind of pain.

Shaking his head slightly, Lanse put those thoughts out of his mind. They weren’t mates yet, they were taking it slow. He just had to remind Keith of that fact. But first they had a debriefing, and then he still had to get Dad to help him rein Allura in. Good thing forming Voltron had left him charged up, or he’d probably be a lot more tempted to put it off until tomorrow.

“Something on your mind?” Keith asked softly as they exited the elevator, and Lanse shook his head again.

“Nothing much.” he stepped closer to Keith, shifting slightly shorter so he could rest his head against his suitor’s bicep. The armour made it less than strictly comfortable, but the contact was still nice. “Just how I’m gonna give Allura a piece of my mind after the debrief.”

Keith chuckled, and Lanse felt the sound as much as he heard it. “I think I’ll be going to bed after. I’m beat.”

“Well, I’ll join you once I’m done chewing out Allura for today.” Lanse grinned, releasing his shift and pressing a quick kiss to Keith’s cheek. At least he had something to look forward to after what was sure to be a very loud fight with his sister.


End file.
